LECTURE X.

GENESIS OF MAN.

"And God said: Let us make man in Our image, after Our likeness and let them have dominion over the fish of the sea, and over the fowl of the air, and over the cattle, and over all the earth, and over every creeping thing that creepeth upon the earth. So God created man in His image, in the image of God created He him; male and female created He them."-GENESIS i. 26, 27.

"And the Lord God formed man of the dust of the ground, and breathed into his nostrils the breath of life: and man became a living soul."-GENESIS ii. 17.

I. The Creation Archive Twofold.

In the Introductory Lecture it was remarked that, although the story of the Creative Week bears the name of the "Mosaic Record," it is not necessary to believe that Moses himself was the literal author of it. As was then observed, there is strong reason for believing that the Archive had already long existed in the form of a sacred, inspired Tradition, and that Moses, accepting it as Divine, simply incorporated it into his Preface to his Pentateuch, thus making it a part of his own chronicle. A scrutiny of the Creation Archive, as given us in the first two chapters of Genesis, shows us that it is manifestly twofold: the first a very ancient document, extending through the first chapter and including the first three verses of the second,

setting forth the process of Creation under its general aspect, and representing the Creator by His general titleElohim, or God, Deity; the second account comprising the rest of the second chapter, a later document, occupied mainly with the story of the Creation of Man, and representing the Creator by His particular, Hebrew title, Jehovah Elohim, or Lord God. It may be that the first account had come down from Adam himself, and that the second account has Moses for its literal author; the first Archive being a Prologue, the second Archive being the first chapter of the History of Mankind. However this be, enough that Moses has incorporated the two accounts into his own story, so that it is strictly correct to speak of them as the Mosaic Record. I have alluded to this matter because the account of the Genesis of Man is evidently twofold: the first a general, the second a specific. Let me then read to you the two Archives. The first is this: "And God said: 'Let us make Man in Our image, after Our likeness and let them have dominion over the fish of the sea, and over the fowl of the heavens, and over the cattle, and over all the earth, and over every creeping thing that creepeth upon the earth.' So God created the Man in His image, in the image of God created He him; male and female created He them. And God blessed them; and God said to them: Be fruitful, and multiply, and fill the earth, and subdue it, and rule over the fish of the sea, and over the fowl of the heavens, and over every living thing that moveth upon the earth.' . . . And it was so. And God saw all that He had made, and behold, it was very good. And there was evening and there was morning, a Sixth Day" (Gen. i. 26-31). The other Archive reads thus: "Now there was yet no plant of the field in the earth, and no herb of the field had yet sprung up: for Jehovah God had

not yet caused it to rain on the earth, and there was no man to till the ground: and there went up a mist from the earth, and it watered all the face of the ground. And Jehovah God formed the Man of dust of the ground, and breathed into his nostrils the breath of life, and the Man became a living soul. . . . And Jehovah God caused a deep sleep to fall upon the Man, and he slept: and He took one of his ribs, and closed up the flesh instead thereof. And of the rib which He took from the Man, Jehovah God formed a Woman, and brought her to the Man" (Gen. ii. 5-22).

II. Panorama

Reserving for a special study the

of Emergent Man. Story of the Genesis of Woman, let us occupy ourselves to-day with the Study of the Genesis of Man. According to our wont, let us first ascend again the Mount of Panoramic Vision, and gaze with the inspired Seer on the unfolding scene of Emergent Man. What though the Breath of God is moving over the waste, ebon abyss, beginning to resolve Chaos into Cosmos? No human being is there to rejoice over the birth of Order. What though the light of chemical activity suffuses the inchoate universe? No human being is there to feel its quickening warmth. What though the arching sky has separated the mighty mass into the heavens and the earth? No human being is there to feel his spirit broadening and soaring with the swelling welkin. What though the waters have retreated to their appointed places, and the dry lands have emerged? No human being is there to sail over the mighty main, or to climb the inspiring mountain. What though the fern branches, and the grass waves, and the palm towers, and the rose blushes, and the vine fruits? No human being is there to enjoy the shapes and hues, or scent the odors, or taste the fruits.

What though the sun blazes, and the moon beams, and the stars twinkle? No human being is there to behold their glory, or, watching their risings and settings, to take note of time. What though sea, air, and land teem with living creatures? No human being is there to give to them names, or to rule over them. All has been preparing for Man; all is now ready for Man; but Man himself is not. And now is heard once more the Omnific Word: "We will make Man in Our image, after Our likeness; and they shall rule over the fish of the sea, and over the bird of the heavens, and over the cattle of the lands, and over all the earth." And, lo, a Form like to that of the Son of God stoops down, and, taking in His hand some of the dust of the soil, He moulds it into a figure like to His own Divine Self, and, placing His hands against the new hands, and His mouth against the new mouth, He breathes into the new nostrils His own life breath; and, lo! the dust figure becomes, like the animals around him, a living soul; ay, more than a living soul, even a Man, becoming, in very virtue of having been Divinely inbreathed, the Creator's Inspiration and Image and Son. Such is the vision of Emergent Man. And now let us attend to some of the details of the majestic picture.

III.-Man God's

Image.

1.-Jesus Christ the Image of God.

And, first: Man the Image of God. God said: "We will make Man in Our image, after Our likeness."

But what is meant by the Image and Likeness of God? Without loitering amid the subtilties of the Schoolmen, let us take a shorter, simpler, truer method, even the answer expressly given in Holy Writ itself. Would you know what is meant by the Image of God? Then gaze on Jesus the Nazarene, Who is the Image of the invisible

God (Col. i. 15), the brightness of His Glory and express Image of His Person, or Impress of His Being (Heb. i. 2). Without presuming to define with theological accuracy these expressions, without venturing to discuss their bearings on that profound, ineffable Mystery of the Christian Church-the Blessed and Adorable Trinity: distinctly disclaiming all attempts at preciseness of theological statement it is enough to say that, practically, in the realm of personal apprehension and experience, Jesus of Nazareth is the Discloser of the Creator, the Revelation of the Father, the Representation of Deity, the Image of the invisible God. And He becomes this in and by the fact of His Incarnation. I would not, especially on such high themes, be wise above what is written. It is but a conjecture, yet a conjecture seemingly well founded, that Infinite God can become knowable to man only through the intervention of some medium, or means of intercommunication. Even earthly things become knowable to us only through the medium of the senses, visible things becoming visible through the sense of sight, audible things audible through the sense of hearing, tangible things tangible through the sense of touch. Let one be born without senses, and he is born without sense, actual or possible. How much less then can the infinite, spiritual God become known to us except through media! He is expressly declared to be the invisible God, dwelling in light which no man can approach unto, Whom no man hath seen or can see (1 Tim. vi. 16). If ever apprehensible, then, to finite worlds, He must become so through some kind of incarnation, or revelation through finite conditions. And all this, be it observed, irrespective of the fact of sin. If, then, mediation was needed before the entrance of evil, how much more since! And the Incarnation meets the necessity.